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PLAYER REVIEW: LUIS GARCIA JR.
Age on Opening Day 2026: 25
How acquired: Signed as international free agent, July 2016
MLB service time: 4 years, 142 days
2025 salary: $4.5 million
Contract status: Arbitration-eligible, free agent in 2028
2025 stats: 139 G, 526 PA, 488 AB, 67 R, 123 H, 28 2B, 1 3B, 16 HR, 66 RBI, 14 SB, 5 CS, 27 BB, 84 SO, .252 AVG, .289 OBP, .412 SLG, .701 OPS, 97 OPS+, -17 DRS, -7 OAA, 0.4 bWAR, 0.7 fWAR
Quotable: “It’s going to be real important for me. I’m going to work hard this offseason to earn a spot next year and come with the mentality of always winning.” – Luis García Jr., via interpreter Mauricio Ortiz
2025 analysis: García entered the 2024 season needing to prove he still deserved to be a big leaguer after an erratic prior year that saw him demoted to Triple-A Rochester. He entered this season with a secure job as the Nationals’ starting second baseman, taking some of the pressure off him. Which, arguably, could have been to his detriment.
Despite a slow start – his OPS bottomed out at .617 in late-May – García was never really in danger of being benched or sent down again. He mostly sat against opposing left-handers but was almost always in the lineup against righties, and usually in the top half of the lineup to boot.
There was a monthlong hot streak that carried into late-June, during which he batted .354 with a .950 OPS across 27 games. But García came back to earth after that and over his final 69 games batted just .229 with a .652 OPS.
Perhaps more concerning than the offensive performance was García’s defensive regression at second base. He made legitimate strides in 2024, especially on ground balls to his left. But those improvements were nowhere to be found this season, whether on ground balls hit to his left or his right or popups hit behind him. He never looked comfortable attempting to field any of them and ended the year as one of the lowest-rated defensive players in baseball, regardless of position.
2026 outlook: It’s hard to believe, but García is easily the longest tenured player on the Nationals at this point, a product of all the other players who have moved on and the fact he actually debuted way back in 2020 as a 20-year-old. He’s still pretty young at 25, but he’s got considerably more experience than most of his teammates.
That creates a real dilemma for the Nats’ new front office and eventual coaching staff. Because he’s still young, is there still time for García to improve as a big league player? Can he cut down on his gargantuan chase rate (37.9 percent) and take advantage of the solid contact he typically makes on pitches inside the strike zone, especially fastballs (.480 slugging percentage)? Can he be better coached to play a competent second base, or are 604 major league games enough to know this is simply who he is?
The Nationals had García try out first base a couple of times in September, just to see how he handled it as they considered any potential future changes. But the people who made that attempt likely aren’t the same people who will be deciding where he plays in 2026. Besides, does he hit enough to play first base?
The tough question new president of baseball operations Paul Toboni is going to face in the next six weeks is whether García fits into the Nats’ 2026 plans at all. He’s due a raise from his $4.5 million salary, and the arbitration process will probably raise that figure to $7 million or so. Is that an appropriate expenditure for a 25-year-old who has always shown promise while also showing obvious flaws that may or may not be fixable?
